1. Field of the Invention
The present invention regards a monitoring device for tyres for vehicle wheels.
The present invention also regards a tyre for vehicle wheels provided with said monitoring device.
The present invention also regards a method for installing an electronic unit in a tyre.
2. Description of the Related Art
The need to monitor, in real time, the operating conditions of tyres, and possibly keep track of the time evolution of parameters representative of such operation, has assumed increasing importance by virtue of the requirement of increased safety imposed on vehicles by clients and/or by national directives/legislation.
The parameters generally considered and/or kept under control can be, for example, temperature, pressure, distance travelled by the tyre (and/or number of revolutions), load acting on the tyre, as well as parameters which derive on mathematical processing that can be executed on the basis of signals detected by sensors placed inside the tyres.
The parameters can also be used for identifying particular conditions in which the tyre and/or the vehicle are found, such as wear conditions, aquaplane conditions etc. and, more generally, for the monitoring of the stresses acting on the tyre during its rolling (e.g. on the road surface).
The data detected or calculated can also be employed for the optimization of the set-up of passive control systems of the vehicle, e.g. systems adapted to verify the suitability between the type of tyre actually installed and the types of tyre provided and considered acceptable, as well as active control systems, which use, among other parameters, those identifying the type of tyre for actively operating on the operation of the vehicle, in order to maintain the latter in safety conditions (e.g. ABS, ESP, etc.).
For such purpose, inside the tyre an electronic unit can be mounted, comprising at least one sensor.
The electronic unit can be mounted on the inner surface of the tyre by means of a connecting member, obtained for example in elastomeric material.
Documents U.S. Pat. No. 6,030,478, U.S. Pat. No. 6,386,251, U.S. Pat. No. 6,860,303, U.S. Pat. No. 7,009,506, EP 1948452, U.S. Pat. No. 7,908,918 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,874,205 show several techniques by means of which an electronic unit can be associated with the inner surface of the tyre.